The first Android 8.0 O preview: 8 features you're going to love

1) Background limits

Google is continuing efforts to maximise battery life, which began with Android Nougat. It says it's increased the automatic limits on what apps can do in the background in a number of key areas (broadcasts, background services, location updates).

“These changes will make it easier to create apps that have minimal impact on a user's device and battery. Background limits represent a significant change in Android, so we want every developer to get familiar with them,” the blog post reads.

2) Picture-in-Picture

As revealed in a recent leak, Google is bringing new PiP (picture-in-picture) features that enable users to continue watching videos while working within other apps; apps will be able to put themselves in PiP mode, Google says.

In other words, with Android O, you'll be able to watch YouTube clips while sending boring work emails. Ace.


3) Notification channels

Here’s a nice idea: Google is grouping notifications into channels that offer users greater control over app notification categories.

“Users can block or change the behavior of each channel individually, rather than managing all of the apps' notifications together,” Google explains.

It will also be possible to snooze individual notifications, which, given the persistence of some Android system notifications, will be most welcome. Snoozing will be possible for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or one hour.





4) Autofill APIs

Google is bringing your favorite password manager apps in-house, in the same way you can access third-party keyboards.

The company writes: “Android users already depend on a range of password managers to auto-fill login details and repetitive information, which makes setting up new apps or placing transactions easier. Now we're making this work more easily available across the ecosystem by adding platform support for auto-fill.
5) Adaptive icons

Google is adding a feature that will enable developers to use different-shaped app icons depending on the manufacturer’s preference (see the GIF below).

What's more, during its initial dive into the preview, Android Police spotted that app icons now support badge notifications in Android O.


6) Better keyboard navigation

Google says the arrival of the Play Store on the Google Chrome OS means more users are navigating apps using a physical keyboard. So, in Android O, the company is making improvements to cater for the Chromebook crowd.

“In Android O, we focused on building a more reliable, predictable model for "arrow" and "tab" navigation that aids both developers and end-users," Google said.



7) Wide colour gamut in imaging apps

The makers of imaging apps can now make better use of the delicious new displays built by manufacturers; particularly those handsets with panels supporting a wide gamut colour.

"To display wide gamut images, apps will need to enable a flag in their manifest (per activity) and load bitmaps with an embedded wide color profile (Adobe RGB, Pro Photo RGB, DCI-P3, and so on)," Google advises developers.

8) Better audio

In Android O, Google is adding the Sony's LDAC codec, which has kindly been donated by the Japanese giant. This should improve upon the Bluetooth A2DP protocol used today.

The company is also introducing the AAudio, which could result in improved low-latency audio. The firm says: It's a "new native API that's designed specifically for apps that require high-performance, low-latency audio."

The first developer preview will be available on the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel, Pixel XL and Pixel C devices.

“The usual caveats apply: it's early days, there are more features coming, and there's still plenty of stabilisation and performance work ahead of us. But it's booting,” Google added.

Those are the coolest Android O features at the moment, but we still have plenty to tell you, stated:
Android O release date – When does Android O come out?

It isn't 100% clear at the moment, but Google has promised to deep-dive into Android O features at Google I/O 2017, so we're expecting to learn more at that time.

Google's developer conference will take place from May 17-19, giving Big G more than a month's worth of developer feedback on the current version of Android O.

Expect to see Android O exit developer preview mode and enter public beta thereafter.

Source; Trustedreviews